April 24, 2013

Bramble Cowl

One of the best parts of working at a yarn store is being surrounded by gorgeous raw materials. Often, when I'm walking by the shelves or re-stocking, the yarn will whisper an idea about what it should be. This happened with the Yarn Lamp. It seems to be happening more and more.

If I try to ignore the whispers, the yarn just gets louder and louder until I eventually buy the yarn and make the project. I'm a little bit slow sometimes so it can get very loud at work with all the yarn yelling at me. I wonder if anyone else notices?

This time it was Madelinetosh Vintage, only a few skeins at first. (You may recall these colors. I've been talking about them for awhile) The yarn said it wanted to be a two colored cowl in a bramble stitch. I said fine. I bought them. I started a gauge swatch. I have been knitting for awhile and I know the rules BUT sometimes I get ahead of myself and ignore them. I did a gauge swatch but I knit it flat, not in the round, like the cowl was going to be knit. My gauge was all off. It would be lovely if the yarn gave me a little shout at this point. I only heard the faint chant,"knit,knit,knit".

I ignored the wonky gauge. Until I couldn't. Unfortunately, I am stubborn and ignored it until the cowl was knit, cast off and hanging to my knees! I should have taken a picture but I was too embarrassed. The worst part is, I didn't even have a pattern I could blame. I was writing this one! There's nothing like writing your own patterns to inspire serious compassion for othe pattern designers. I sincerely apologize for all of the times I've blamed the pattern or the designer. Chances are good, it was me.

Because I tend to "jump ahead", I am familiar with having to take a deep breath and rip it out, and that's exactly what I did. This time I knit the right gauge swatch, got the right gauge, changed the numbers and quickly re-knit. The yarn was happy!

And so was the recipient! A1 finally got it when she flew back to the States. I held it hostage until she modeled for me though.

Here it is twisted twice.

She likes to wear it like this, in blustery England, at the bus stop.

After I finally finished this one, twice, it was like all the Madelinetosh skeins started screaming at once. I tried to ignore them and work, but everytime I looked over they were pairing up, two by two, into the most amazing color combinations. So, along came the black and pink for A3. She is happily wearing that one. Then I realized that I don't have one! So, Black and green it is.

I thought that might be the end, but there have been a few people who have requested the pattern. It's up on Ravelry here. There were a few more that requested finished cowls. They will have to wait because the Noro Ayatori is shouting at me! It demands to be made into a cowl as well.